Plate heat exchangers have been used, for example, with motor vehicles in order to control the temperature of the gear oil using the coolant of the vehicle engine. Such plate heat exchangers have included stacked heat exchanger plates, each of which have openings which form channels in the stack of heat exchanger plates and which serve to introduce and lead away the fluids from flow channels between the plates.
Such heat exchangers have been used in a wide variety of different environments in which the connections for the fluids may vary, as may the restricted space available for the heat exchanger. It is know to provide transfer channels with an upper plate and a lower plate in order to guide a fluid to a desired position of the inlet or outlet. Plate heat exchangers generally of this type are variously shown, for example, in DE 41 25 079 A1, WO 94/29659 and EP 614 061 A1. However, such designs have limited ability to economically adapt to the great variety of environments in which such heat exchangers might be used.
The present invention is directed toward overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.